5 June 2026

Kia ora whānau,

Connecting with our Community

Last Friday, Karl Emson and I visited Village at the Park (our neighbouring retirement village) to see our Art for Art’s Sake enrichment group spending time with residents, drawing images inspired by childhood memories. Organised by Kaz Shuker, this was a wonderful example of our students connecting with the wider community. It was great to see the conversations, creativity, and genuine engagement between the students and residents.

Success in Rockquest

Congratulations to The Cavemen, one of our school bands, who recently competed in the regional Rockquest competition, performing an original song. The group were pleased with their performance and are already looking forward to defending their title as Wellington’s top intermediate school band later in the year. We wish them all the best.

Looking Ahead to Secondary School

This is the time of year when secondary schools begin their enrolment processes, with open days and information evenings taking place across the city. If you haven’t already, I encourage you to start talking with your young person about their options and the next steps ahead. See the list of dates below.

Choosing a secondary school is an important decision. Take the opportunity to visit schools, ask questions, and do your research. As parents and caregivers, you should feel informed and comfortable with the pathway ahead for your child.

Mid-Year Reporting

At the end of this term, you will receive your child’s progress report for the year to date. There has been considerable discussion across the education sector about changes to reporting requirements. While I won’t comment on those discussions, I can assure you that our focus is on providing families with information that is clear, accurate, and useful.

This year’s report will look a little different, with a stronger focus on Reading, Writing, and Mathematics, alongside a general comment about your child’s progress and learning. Reports will be available through HERO, with printed copies available on request.

We will share further information about reporting later this term. In the meantime, I hope the report will complement the valuable conversations many of you had with teachers and your children during our recent three-way conferences.

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Term 2 Dates

• 8 June – WELLINGTON HIGH Open evening
• 9 June – RONGOTAI Open Evening, 6pm
• 10 June – WRISSA Boys’ Basketball at Walter Nash
• 10 June – St Catherine’s College Open Evening, 6pm – 7.30pm
• 11 June – Wellington East Open afternoon and evening, 3pm – 4.30pm and 6pm – 8pm
• 15 June – Wellington Boys’ College Open Morning, 9am
• 18 June – Wellington Girls’ College OPEN EVENING
• 19 June – World Scholars’ Cup at QMC, 1pm
• 19 June – Forensics Enrichment visiting Police Museum
• 20 June – World Scholars’ Cup, 9.30am – 4.30pm at QMC
• 23 June – St Patrick’s College Open Day, 10-11.30am and 12.30 – 2pm
• 24 June – Showquest at St James Theatre – Kapa haka and Enrichment groups
• 24 June – Showquest Toi – Enrichment group
• 24 June – WRISSA Hockey National Hockey Stadium
• 25 June – Otago Problem Solving Set 3
• 25 June – St Patrick’s College Open Day, 10-11.30am and 12.30 – 2pm
• 27 June – ERO visit
• 30 June – Vision Nurse visiting
• 30 June – Regional Cross Country
• 2 July – SWIS Matariki Performance Evening, 6pm
• 3 July – Last day of Term 2

Note: Matariki is in the July School Holidays

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School Notices

April Storm Recovery Community Meeting – Saturday 6 June

This meeting is for Wellington community members who have been affected by the flood of 20 April. It will open with an address from the Mayor, then representatives from key organisations will answer your questions.

When: 2-4pm, Saturday 6 June

Where: Island Bay Presbyterian Church, 88 The Parade

There will be an opportunity to share your experiences and talk with experts from: Wellington City Council, Wellington Water, MetService, Greater Wellington Regional Council, Wellington Region Emergency Management Office, community support agencies.

For flood recovery information and advice, visit: www.wellington.govt.nz/april-storm-recovery

April Storm Recovery Rates Remission

If your property was made uninhabitable or unusable for more than 28 days due to the 20 April 2026 flooding, you may be eligible for a rates remission. This applies to both residential and commercial properties and covers Wellington City Council rates only.

You’ll need to apply to the Council by 30 June 2026 and provide evidence, such as an insurance report or confirmation from a qualified professional showing the property is not fit for occupation due to the 20 April flood.

For more information and a link to the online application form visit: www.wellington.govt.nz/april-storm-recovery

Vision Nurse to visit school – 30 June

Just a reminder the all Year 7 students will have a vision test on 30 June. You will be contacted if your child requires further testing.

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School News

Silver toy sculptures take out the Qizzle prize!

We are thrilled to share that Zoe has been selected as a winner in the May Calendar Art Competition run by Qizzle! The competition theme challenged students to create sculptures, and Zoe’s artwork stood out for its creativity, imaginative collection of toys, and the fantastic transformation created with silver spray paint. A special mention also to Fran, whose sculpture was also highly praised by the judges. Well done to you both — we can’t wait to see what you create next!

Kids Lit Quiz always has 10 rounds with 10  questions per round. This year the rounds included Fables, Horror, and Illustrators. Each team got to choose one “trump round”, where you get double points. For each round, the teams that got the highest “raw’’ score (not counting trumps) were each awarded $5. If there are two teams that got the same highest score, the Quizmaster reads a head-to-head question and the fastest correct response wins. Our team went head-to-head once, but unfortunately missed out on the cash. For each round, there are also two “money questions”, one for the audience and one for the competitors. Two competitors from the other SWIS team each won a money question.

In the end, our team came 11th tied, and the other SWIS team came 30th out of 60 teams. I hope that heaps of students from SWIS sign up to come to the 2027 Kids Lit Quiz; I couldn’t recommend it more! – Livie G

We got there at about 9:30 and about 20 minutes later, all the intermediates that were participating had arrived. Then around 10am the instructor from Maidstone Intermediate called Shawn started giving out the instructions and the timetable for the day. Shortly after the Spell It Out competition had started. The first activity was identifying the mistake. There were 4 different activities including animal related words and spelling them. After that, there was a test which had to be taken individually where Shawn read out a couple of words and we had to write them down correctly. The top 15 candidates got selected for the Spelling Bee. 

The Spelling Bee was extremely stressful. Hundreds of eyes watching you, your teammates having high expectations for representing your school. But honestly, it was finished before it had even started. The words were extremely hard, people getting eliminated as we went. Before we knew it, we were down to the final 2. One of the finalists was Bhavishya from the SWIS Year 8 team. Shortly after Bhavishya won the spelling bee and beat the other candidate – a Year 8 candidate: Phoenix from  Fergusson Intermediate. They both did an amazing job, remaining strong and confident. Soon after, Bhavishya had spelled the last word correctly and got the title of the 2026 Spelling Bee Champion. We were all extremely proud of her for representing SWIS, and remaining confident throughout. After she had gotten her prize, the top 2 winning schools from the Spell It Out competition were announced. The SWIS Year 8 team had gotten second place, extremely close to 1st which was Wairarapa Intermediate.  

We received an award, which was presented to the SWIS Year 8 team, and had a photo taken as well. Afterwards, we were all packing up to get back to SWIS and got there 10 minutes before lunch ended.

The 2026 Spelling Bee and Spell It Out competition was an awesome experience for both Year 7s and Year 8s. Thank you! – Apeksha, Rm 10